Article Summary: Miss Canadiana Confronts the Mythologies of Nationhood
In the narrative, a character named Camille Turner, who is a Jamaican by birth, relocated to Canada at a tender age of nine. Their family was so optimistic about the good life that awaited them on the other side, being that Canada was regarded as a nation with many opportunities. In her early 20s, her family decides to go back to Jamaica for a visit (Turner 53). Camille Turner, now Miss Canadiana, always felt like a stranger back in Canada, but things became worse in Jamaica since her family could no longer trace their origin. The life experience in Canada brought the feeling of lack of a sense of belonging and also the sense of racial discrimination as a result of not being white. Because of this, there was Miss Canadiana.
The audience is eager to see Camille Turner, who is now the new Miss Canadiana. Every audience has different motives of seeing the Miss Canadiana, some of whom have come to listen to the sad testimonies of the Black Canadian slave who fled from America’s brutalities. Miss Canadiana’s audience always waits for her with a lot of anxiety and expectations. Her complexion is not what is anticipated as the personification of the Canadian state (Turner 56). Miss Canadiana wants to challenge Canada’s established traditionalism by advocating for fairness through owning the name Miss Canadian in place of Miss Afro-Caribbean Canada or Miss Black Canada.
Black woman has passed through a history of degradation, and her image was taken to be a symbol of slavery and black serfdom. In counties under colonial subjection where Miss Jamaica Beauty Show was done, white women continuously won the title even though ninety percent of the inhibitors were blacks. Not until 1959, when Sheila Chong, a half Chinese half-Black, became the first non-white woman to win the title (Turner 56).
The presence of the black has been underrated even though some strive to put it in history books to give the blacks some credit. As Rupert Rodney wrote, the slave trade done at the Atlantic brought the Blacks in Canada, making them play a primary role in the building of the nation. A greater percentage of the labor force in the region was made up of blacks. Blacks, especially those of Jamaican ancestry, came to Canada starting from 1804 at the time when Jamaican Maroons were taken to Nova Scotia en route to Sierra Leone (Turner 57). The tales of immigrants who came from the Caribbean, revealing the responsibilities they took part in building the Canadian state. Caribbean resettlement in the late 1800s during which the Jamaicans were massively absorbed as the basis of inexpensive labor during Canadian railway prosperity.
Miss Canadiana’s representation as a Black female signifies the Canadian nation as a figure of opposition, which changes audience thinking and notion. The black female started gaining momentum, and the act of racism was reducing even if Simcoe’s anti-slavery bill was overruled. According to a new deal, importing new slaves was illegal, and kids of the slaves were automatically free at 25yrs (Turner 58).
Miss Canadiana also helped unearth some of the bad memories that brought forth a history when Ruth Bailey and her friend Gwennyth Barton became the very first Black nursing students to have graduated from a nursing institution in Canada, being that nursing was only a white woman’s profession. The Miss Canadiana’s tours made history, and Black forerunners like Ruth Bailey and Peggy could now be remembered.